GTA San Andreas: do you have the hint book?

No.

I don't have the hint book. What else is there to discuss? It seems to be a simple "yes" or "no" question.

Wait...nevermind. The poll didn't show up until after I posted.

I might pick it up in the future. I never really needed it in either 3 or Vice City for playing through the main story. What it would be nice for is getting all the secrets and what have you. It might be worth picking up just for that. I flipped through the book and it really does a great job of breaking down every single little thing; so, it might end up in my grubby little mits.

Yeah, I just used Gamefaqs for hunting down errant hidden packages, but I don't see how I'm going to be able to do that for the snapshots. So I might get it eventually.

I'll put it this way:

The last hint book I bought was a Street Fighter 2 Player's Guide. In 1992. I was 10.

More or less, I stand with Sammy on his first two sentences: I think the things are evil, add expense to already expensive games, and kill a lot of the enjoyment and accomplishment of finding something no one else has found, or beating a boss with the wrong weapon when the strategy guide couldve told you how to kill it in 3 hits.

If I need hints, I'll go to gamefaqs, and there's usually only 3 instances in which I'll do that:

1. I've tried absolutely EVERYTHING in an area and can't figure out what I'm supposed to do (usually, I've overthought the situation, and just need to go back a room and look behind a shelf or something). This rarely happens anymore now that most games are so free-flowing. Old emulated SNES games, though.....

2. Find out moves that the manual/in-game tutorial wont tell you (read: the King of Fighters series; Mortal Kombat fatalities)

3. I've beaten the game. At which time, all bets are off. The difference is, at that point, you've EARNED the right to cheat instead of cheating right from the get go. You think you've seen all the game has to fofer and you wanna know if there's more.

So, long story short (too late ) the answer's no.

That said, though......Jesus, the San Andreas guide's as thick as a Bible.....if that thing's not comprehensive, i dunno what the hell is.

Why do people still buy hint books? Every miniscule detail about nearly any game is out there for free on a number of websites.

Pictures. Seriously. I'd never buy a game guide again and rely only on Gamefaqs, but for certain games you just need a full color, high-production-value map, and sometimes you need images of items in the game (verbal descriptions just don't cut it). GTA3 SA is one of those games.

I'm sure it's possible to find all 100 spray locations with the verbal descriptions on Gamefaqs... but it's often damn hard to decipher the instructions (leave the safe point and drive two blocks past the third blue house to the North West. Go around back and jump the chainlink fence, then the wooden fence, the go through the yard to the south...) Throw in the chance that the Gamefaqs guide writer screwed up and searching for things in a big game world can become exceedingly frustrating.

For most games the guides aren't worth it, I agree. A Halo 2 guide is a skull-cramping stupid idea. Nevertheless big RPG-style games can still require the use of a well-written (and well-illustrated) handbook, especially if you're a completist (and not also a masochist). Final Fantasy, the Zelda series, and GTA are examples of these games.

Only for some games, and only if I'm stuck beyond anything I can think of, or I've beaten the game already. And in the case of RPG's, to find every last item.

It's a fairly straight forward game, I see no need for it, unless you want to collec everything in which you're not really looking for everything, just look at a top-dow map that shows where everything is.

What games are you playing that a hint book is "essential"? Crazy talk.

I have the strategy guide and its frustrating. I don't use it for the missions. I don't see why anyone would have to because each mission tells you what to do.
I use the strategy book for finging all the little things that get you 100% and it sucks. I don't know if they rushed it or if they had a preview copy of the game that was a little off or what.

First off, if anyone wants to know where all 50 Photo Ops are in San Fierro just go to the BradyGames web site ( www.bradygames.com ) because they had to put them all on there, since the strategy guide that I paid for is COMPLETELY wrong. That was frustrating as hell. Its a big game so I just thought I couldn't find the photo ops. I spent about 2 hours one night looking for different ones. I would stumble across some, but non in the guide were correct.

Also, the 50 Horseshoes in Las Venturas. the strategy guide, WRONG! I think there was a printing error or something and I'm still not sure if this is right, but it seems to me that all the locations that are in the guide should be about 4 centimeters to the right. They are definitely in the wrong place in the guide and if you move them all over just a little when you mark them on your map in the game, they seem to be about right.

There are also, other little small things like when it says that the race tournaments are unlocked. I was looking around for these after the driving school but they don't actually show up till later. And I think the times in which it says the girlfriends are home are a little off.